Fox Orders Comedy Pilot from Johnny Depp & ’21 Jump Street’ Directors

Filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller have only just begun shooting their next movie project, 22 Jump Street, i.e. the sequel to their successful (critically and financially) cinematic reboot of the cult 1980s TV series 21 Jump Street (headlined by a pre-Tim Burton Johnny Depp). However, that hasn’t prevented the duo from managing their first sale in a larger deal with 20th Century Fox TV, for the comedy pilot Torched.

Lord and Miller started their careers by working in the television medium, where they collaborated with Bill Lawrence (creator of Scrubs) to create the animated TV series Clone High – which has gained a limited, but loyal, cult following since it was cancelled after one season – and served as co-writers/executive producers on How I Met Your Mother during the comedy series’ first season (i.e. well before the show had started to wear out its welcome).

Deadline is reporting that the Torched pilot is the brainchild of Blue Mountain State co-creator and lead Chris Romano, who has become a full-time co-executive producer on How I Met Your Mother over the past two years (following the end of Blue Mountain State‘s run back in late 2011). Torched is described as a single-camera family comedy series, wherein “a fast-talking, fun-loving dad [through] his very unique — and sometimes law-breaking — job, strives to give his young son the life he never had.”

Depp is executive producing Torched through his Infinitum Nihil banner, along with Romano, Lord, Miller and Infinitum’s Christi Dembrowski (who’s also Depp’s older sister) and Norman Todd. Romano’s new comedy series will be the first TV producing venture for Depp, who (as mentioned before) established his heartthrob status back in the original 21 Jump Street TV show more than 25 years ago. Up to now, however, Depp has only produced his own starring vehicles (Rum Diary, Dark Shadows, Lone Ranger), with the exception of Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning 3D film, Hugo.

By the sound of it, though, credit for the Torched pilot’s success (or lack thereof) will belong primarily to Romano, since Lord and Miller are going to be preoccupied with filming the 21 Jump Street movie followup – and then, promoting next year’s The Lego Movie - in the near future (meanwhile, Depp will be getting to work on the Mortdecai film adaptation). Nevertheless, something good may come of this particular comedy pilot, judging by the talent assembled behind the camera.